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Cinnamon Raisin Bagels Recipe

Breakfast anyone?! Sometimes, a hit of carbs is only a good thing, perfect to fill you up quick. These bagels are good for you though; wholewheat, low fat and low sugar!

This is about the 475027493 time I have made bagels and to be honest, these are the most perfect batch yet

If you have been reading my blog for some time, you may know that I despise raisins in food. However, these bagels are a completely different story altogether.
There is sometime about raisins in a cinnamon bagel that just “works”. Eating a cinnamon bagel and bam! Sweet raisin, you know what I mean?

As you can probably tell, I love these bagels. The perfect amount of chewiness, a lovely dark golden color and the optimum amount of raisins, if you love bagels, you will love these.

I was surprised about how easy it was to make these bagels from start to first. Just like a regular yeasted bread dough but instead of just baking it, you boil them first to achieve the lovely chewy texture and the glorious color which develops during baking.

And yes, making bread is as easy as turning on the oven, trust me!

Making bread is all about the chemistry; yeast is just a little microorganism that gets to work making carbon dioxide and alcohol whenever it has a supply of food and a suitable temperature to grown in. The yeast feeds on the sugars found in the flour as well as the smidgen of added sugar whilst the dough is proving to make carbon dioxide to make it grow and “prove”. This also develops alcohol which develops the bread flavor. But don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates during baking!

Proving is vital for a successful bread; if you under-prove, your bread will be flat and no air-bubbles made. If over-proved, the yeast has no more energy and the gluten structure in the bread may collapse.

However, if you prove your bread for the perfect amount of time, your bread will be utterly divine!

Kneading also is one of the most important things about making bread. Kneading builds up gluten, a protein from flour, which makes bread dough elastic and stretchy. I cannot stress enough how important kneading your dough is. For a long time, I used to use my tabletop mixer, fitted with the dough hook to knead my bread dough. However, this did not produce great results at all! So, about years ago, I started to hand knead my dough and the difference it made was amazing.

No more dense bread. Hand kneading lets you manipulate the dough, therefore building up more gluten thus producing a better bread.

I 1000% recommend kneading by hand even if you are not the most confident, just practice on the dough. Plus, it is so much more fun.

Only, ever, if you are pushed for time, can you use a tabletop mixer, just make sure to leave it to knead for a good 7 minutes. But trust me, you will enjoy kneading by hand so much more!

Now is it time for the shaping of the bagels to get that iconic shape. I find this my favorite part of the recipe. I hope this guide will help!

If you make my Cinnamon Raisin Bagels Recipe, be sure to take a photo and tag me @onlinefoodblog on Instagram or Twitter. I would love nothing more than to see your creations!

Instructions

Put the wholewheat flour, white flour, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt into a large bowl and mix well.

Put the water and yeast into a jug and mix well.

Leave for 5 minutes until bubbles start to form.

Pour the water into the dry ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Knead for 7 minutes in an electric mixer with the dough hook attachment or 10 minutes by hand until the dough is smooth, elastic and very stretchy.

Place the dough into a clean and oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm.

Leave to prove for one hour until doubled in size

Once the dough has proved, add the raisins and punch down with your fist.

Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.

Using your thumb, poke a hole into the center of one of the balls and slowly stretch it to make a hole about 4cm in diameter.

Leave the bagels to prove for another 15 minutes until they are slightly puffier in texture.

Meanwhile, put a large saucepan of water onto boil with the baking soda and sugar.

Get a cooling wire rack ready for the bagels and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Preheat the oven to 220ºc / 200ºc/ gas mark 7.

Once the bagels have proved again, carefully drop them into the boiling water.

Boil for 30 seconds and flip and boil for another 30 seconds. Drain on a wire rack and repeat.

Once all the bagels have been boiled, place on the baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes until a dark golden brown and shiny. Leave to cool on the tray for 2 minutes and then remove them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Hi – I’m Brett Stevens! I am Britt and living in London. Food, Family, and friends are my 3 favorite things in life. (not in that order) . Food blogging has always been a something I wanted to try and the Onlinefoodblog gave me this wonderful opportunity to develop my own recipes and upload them to this blog. Message me if you enjoy my recipes or have anything to say!

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About Me

Hi, I'm Lee-Ann. Thanks for visiting my food blog. I am a foodie, traveler and a cat lover. (not necessarily in that that order). After reading food blog after food blog, after food blog - I thought - You know what I need it a food blog of my own. Why not - I can cook and I can bake. Learn More